Prisoner of darkness
by Sjeherazade
Summary: A short story written for Halloween 2009
1. Chapter 1

**This is just a short story I wrote for Halloween 2009. And I don't own Animorphs. By the way, English is not my native language so this may contain some spelling mistakes. **

**Marco**

Okay, so this all began an early Saturday afternoon… about in the middle of the day I think, maybe 13:00. Or maybe I should say it began when Jake ran over to me in the morning looking quite upset.

It had taken him about ten minutes to tell me what he wanted to say. Tom had succeeded to make their parents promise that the entire family would go to the Sharing this evening and to come to the important thing in all this. Jake wanted help.

We had just been at Cassie's. Rachel and Tobias wanted to stay for a while so Jake and I walked home alone.

Jake seemed a little calmer now, we had made up a plan over how to get his parents out of the Sharing and he believed it in 100%. But he was still worried; he wasn't really with me when I tried to tell him jokes and most of the time he just stared at his own feet.

"You don't think you will look like that at home, do you?" I asked, and he actually looked at me.

"How?"

"Like the world is about to explode of course! How do you think you would explain to Tom that you look like you would want to hide under your bed and cry when the only thing you _know_ is that you are going to the Sharing and have _fun_? He has to get that something is wrong!"

Jake stopped sigh and look at the ground. But he still seemed down. Now I began to sigh instead of him.

"Jake, this plan is the best one we ever had! For once we have even found a way to make sure that we are all going to survive. Nothing can go wrong this time so what's wrong?"

"Nothing, except that they wants my parents. And me too, if you haven't thought about that before!" He muttered.

"Actually I have thought about it, but as I just told you, this plan can not fail. Nothing to worry about… as long as Tom doesn't see that you are walking around as if you knew something!"

"I can always tell him that something happened in school!" Was his answer to this?

"But if he don't ask? If he just makes up conclusions…"

Suddenly all sounds disappeared, no birds were singing, no dogs were barking, no engines, no wind… and then the light began to disappear too. It got darker and darker and when it couldn't become darker a horrible mist began to grow around us, but without letting the light come back. I can't explain it better than that; it was a dark wicked and totally impenetrable fog that really was close to scare us to death. Jake and I stood there horror-struck and starred at each other.

"What is this?" Jake asked quietly. I didn't even dare to joke about it. This mist was the most horrible I had even experienced, even the most horrible I could think of.

"I don't know, but I'm quite convinced that the Yeerks are involved." Now we could hear some sounds again, but it wasn't normal sounds as singing birds and mooing cows we heard. Horrible, evil, echoing laughers, footsteps, and it were definitely not human. I don't know who was walking but I know one thing, I didn't like it.

We didn't even recognize most of the new sounds. Some of them are indescribable. One sounded as two beating hearts, I suspect that it was my own and Jake's hearts we heard.

The terrible laughers, steps and heartbeats and all the other horrible sounds came closer, they grew stronger, higher. And at the same time the darkness got darker and the fog heavier. It was like they wanted to swallow me. Then suddenly…

I was back, sunshine, I was on the same spot as I had been when it had begun. I was lying on the ground and gasped for air. I could hear the birds, cows, horses and cars again. The only sound that was still there was the heart.

First several minutes later, when I had calmed down enough to stand up I discovered that everything was not back to normal. One very important thing had changed.

Jake was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter**** 2**

There was absolutely no chance that Jake could have run away and hid somewhere, I should have heard that. But then it was that obvious proof right in front of me, he had disappeared. And to me it only meant one thing, he was still on that other place.

This darkness hadn't allowed him to come back. Or maybe Jake hadn't figured out how to do. Maybe I had understood something that had allowed me to escape.

I immediately rejected that theory, if I had figured it out then I should remember what it was, besides I don't think Jake had thought very different in this situation. Both of us wanted to escape, nothing else, so why had I come back when he hadn't?

I ran back to Cassie's barn. Rachel and Tobias was still there, Ax had left.

"Where is Ax?" I almost screamed when I arrived. Rachel raised her eyebrows like she used to do when I tried to play a joke. The thing was, this time it wasn't a joke and that fact made me feel very frustrated. "I have to speak to Ax, something very strange happened and it is _no_ joke!"

"I have heard this one before!" Rachel sighed before she could stop herself.

"Listen, when Jake and I were on our way home… some strange fog and some strange sounds… like some strange… I don't know… had suddenly decided to take over the world." I exclaimed. But Rachel just snort at it.

"It is true!" I yelled in despair. Do you believe Jake would help me with a joke like this? He would tell me to do it myself and then he had left."

"And how are we supposed to know he didn't do so?" Rachel asked then.

"This darkness decided to keep him!" I yelled. "It let me escape but not Jake, he is still in there."

"You didn't answer the question, how do we know that Jake hasn't just walked home and forced you to play this stupid joke by yourself?"  
"Because he would have followed me here and made sure I hadn't even tried! He would never let me joke about that he was in danger!" Rachel didn't have any good answer to that. "It just happened, okay? Jake disappeared into a strange fog!" This time it was Cassie who didn't believed me.

"But how come this strange fog as you want to call it, didn't kept you?" Then I couldn't take anymore.

"I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW… Where is Ax, I want to talk with Ax, now!"

I ran out to the forest, I had to find Ax, I had to help Jake… and if Ax wasn't in the barn with the others, then he had do be somewhere in the forest.

After a while I noticed that Rachel, Cassie and Tobias actually had followed me to seek for Ax anyway. I caught sight of a bald eagle, an osprey and a red tailed hawk.

Actually I felt really relieved when I saw them, that meant that they had actually believed me after all.

Then I stopped running and began to transform too, it was true that we would save a lot of time if we looked for Ax from the sky. I suppose that I had been too shocked to see it first.

Now after stumbling around in the forest a while, my friends had reminded me about one thing I had totally forgotten, I was able to morph… at least I think I had forgotten. In the shock I mean.

But I hadn't forgotten everything, I had realized that it wasn't just a chance that just Jake and I of all the six billion people in the world who had ended up it all this. It had to be some explanation.

And I was still quite convinced that it had something to do with the yeerks.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter**** 3**

**Jake**

Evil and horrible laughter's echoed in the air, they increased, steps… I don't know what kind of steps, not human steps anyway and I didn't like them.

Those horrible laughter's and steps and heartbeats and all the other evil sound around me came closer, they increased, they got higher. And at the same time the darkness got even more horrible, the darkness and the fog got too close, like it wanted to swallow me.

"Marco?" I whined out in the dark. I don't know why it did matter to me but I wanted to know that he was still with me. No answer. The darkness and the mist came closer, it felt like I would be able to touch it if I wanted.

"Marco are you still there?" I screamed out. Still no answer. Then suddenly I felt something grab my foot. I screamed again and tried to get away from it, the only thing that happened was that I fell. The grip didn't loose. I looked at it.

It was the darkness itself that had taken a grip on me. I placed both of my hands on it and tried to tear it away. Then more arms of darkness were there and tore my arms away from the foot I tried to release. This darkness tied me up in a painful way, the fact that I got more light around me after that didn't really seemed very comforting, I felt so weak… I wanted to be stronger… I tried to morph the tiger…

I had barely begun to change when the darkness begun to squeeze my body tighter. The pain forced me to demorph… something stronger… the rhinoceros…

The darkness forced me to demorph again. At that time I noticed that I had tears in my face.

"Marco can you hear me?" I sobbed in despair. He still didn't answer. Then I heard those horrible footsteps come closer. I looked up.

A being with small evil eyes, a human like head, wrinkled face, almost black and with a greenish mouth. It leaned forward like a little dinosaur. The Drode.

Then I suddenly realized where the new light really came from. I reluctantly turned me eyes in the direction were the light came from. There, above me on a on a throne that was miles high I saw a terrible creature without arms and with a head that only was an eye, nothing else but a blood red eye… and it was watching me… I sobbed again and turned away from Crayak.

"Hi Jake!" He said.

I didn't answer, I just tried to hide in all this darkness, but just as if it could read my thoughts it dispersed so he would be able to see me anyway, of course without that I could move more than before.

"Hi Jake!" He tried again, higher this time. I gave up, he wasn't going to allow me to pretend like I didn't know he was there.

"What are you doing?" I asked trying to sound brave, it failed.

"That's a good question really!" He said. "The truth is that, as I didn't had anything to do and that I have had a quite boring day I decided to kidnap you to have something amuse myself with until I can come up with something else to do.

"And what do you think the Eliminist will say about that?" I asked and surprised myself as I sounded much braver than I thought I could.

"I think he would have a lot of things to say… if he finds out!" Then he laughed at me. I felt very small when I heard that laughter. Several hours later when I finally dared to speak I asked him one more thing.

"What did you do with Marco?"

"I let him go of course, what did you expect? Ok, now I think it's time to have some fun, what do you think?"

I just shook my head when I heard it, actually I was trembling, I could just imagine what Crayak meant with, _have some fun_, I closed my eyes, I didn't really believe that he would kill me, that would end the fun for him, but still I didn't want to see what he did to me.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter**** 4**

**Ax**

((Marco I don't know what happened ok? Calm down a bit I'm trying to think.)) It was a completely unbelievable story Marco had told me. I didn't have any idea about what it could be.

But I didn't believe in his theory about the yeerks. The yeerks just couldn't have done something that I couldn't think of.

Then there was two possibilities left. One possibility was that it was other andalites who had discovered that Jake and Marco could morph and wanted to ask them some questions.

But in that case they wouldn't have let Marco go, and they wouldn't care about making those stupid sounds to scare them either.

"Have you figured it out yet?" Marco asked.

((No, quiet please I'm thinking…))

"Think faster then, Jake needs help!"  
((I know, but calm down!))

The other possibility was that it was someone who was superior to the andalites… maybe the Ellimist… but the Ellimist wouldn't make a fool of himself by using those sounds and lights either…

But… maybe he knew something…

… Maybe he knew something… even if he hadn't done anything…

… Or…

…maybe he… could…

… Find him… maybe…

"Are you still thinking?"

((I'm not there yet, calm down!))

…should I… call him…

… And ask him if he knew something…

… The Eliminist…

… He was actually the only trustworthy explanation…

… Or, maybe not. He wasn't really. The Ellimist wouldn't try to scare Jake and Marco with some silly darkness and some fog…

… But even if he hadn't something to do with it…

… Maybe he could find him…

… Or at least explain what had happened to him…

"Have you finished your thoughts yet?"

"Quiet Marco, Ax is trying to think!" I heard Cassie say.

… The Eliminist… should I…

… Call for the Eliminist…

… He was the only trustworthy explanation after all…

… At least he was the only one who could explain what had happened.

I didn't like it, I didn't like it, I didn't like it, I didn't like it…

((Eliminist? Can you hear me?))

When I had said it the forest began to become darker and all the sounds disappeared… I watched Marco. He hadn't reacted, this wasn't what he had seen earlier then.

HELLO AXIMILI! It was him, he had actually come when I asked for him. IF YOU WANTED TO SAY SOMETHING YOU HAVE TO DO IT QUICKLY, I HAVE VERY MUCH TO DO RIGHT NOW! BUT I CAN STAY TO HEAR WHAT YOU WANT, AND IF I'M ALLOWED TO HELP YOU I WILL. BUT WHAT IS IT ABOUT!

"Can you find Jake!" I heard Cassie ask.

SURE, NOTHING CAN BE EASIER… WHAT? CRAYAK IS CHEATING! Then he disappeared.

((Why did I ever believe that I could trust that…))

"Eliminist?" Rachel filled in. "He could have tried to find Jake if it is as easy as he says but then he runs away to hunt Crayak instead!"

((Actually I think that he found him.)) I said quietly. This explained everything. Crayak would have tried to scare Jake and Marco, he would actually have done everything he could to scare them and that wasn't the only thing that remained of him. Cassie took a grip of my arm.

"What are you saying, do you think Crayak has kidnapped Jake?"  
((Yes, that is exactly what I think!))

"But the Ellimist will get him back, right?"  
((If…)) The Eliminist had said that Crayak had cheated… ((Yes, he will! Now we go saving Prince Jake's parents for him!))


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter**** 5**

**Jake**

"Jake? Are you all right, sweetheart?" My mum asked me at dinner.

I looked up. I'd been staring at my food, I realized. Something with pasta and tuna fish.

"What?" I asked. My mom and dad exchanged one of their _worried parent_ looks.

"Well, you're not eating. Don't you like it?" I shrugged.

"Sorry. It's fine. I was just . . . distracted." My dad nodded.

"It's just a change from the last two nights. You've been eating like you were trying to eat everything in the house."

"I was?" Tom cocked an eyebrow at me.

"What, now you're going to pretend it didn't happen? Last night you sat here and ate six pieces of chicken and kept yapping about how great it was. Then you ate a pie. A pie which was supposed to be for the four of us."

"Actually… that wasn't me!" I told them. "I have been controlled by an alien slug in my head for three days but fortunately one of my friends appeared to be an andalite and he kidnapped me and took my place until it died!"

Mum and dad just laughed at me, Tom did not… there was something strange in his eyes.

"MUM!" I jumped up from the table, run over to my parents and hid behind them. " HE'S ONE OF THEM. DON'T LET HIM TAKE ME…"

"You don't seem very impressed!" Crayak stated. I tried to turn away from him but his darkness kept holding me the way he wanted me to stay. Crayak began to laugh at me again and I closed my eyes, and in the same moment I wished I hadn't.

"You're awfully quiet, Jake." My mother said. "Thinking deep thoughts?"

I smiled.

"I was thinking this was cool. We should all have dinner together more often." I looked at Tom. "It was nice. I hope nothing ever happens to us. I hope we'll always be together."

The Yeerk inside Tom's head searched Tom's memory. The Yeerk opened his memory and read it like a book. He played the strings of Tom's brain like a violinist squeezing perfect notes out of a violin. The Yeerk found the answer that Tom would have made. It aimed Tom's eyes and made Tom's face smile sardonically. It opened Tom's mouth and made Tom say the words Tom would have said, if he'd been able.

"Hey, Mum, no more tiramisu for Jake. The liqueur is making him mushy."

I couldn't take more…

"The day will come, Yeerk, when I will tear you out of his head and destroy you for what you've done to my family."

"Crayak, if you can't come up with anything better, can't you just leave me alone?" I didn't feel very brave when I said that, I just felt that it was the only thing I could do, I just couldn't stand the silence that fell when he had let me out of… whatever it was. This strange darkness was still tied around me, I wasn't able to move a single part of my body, except for the head.

"Crayak?"

"Yes!"

No, why had I called for him, that had only reminded him that I was there, for a brief moment it had actually seemed as he had forgotten about me.

"Was it anything you wanted to say?" I shook my head violently and then turned away from him. Then I saw more horrible memories that Crayak had changed or just made up from nothing.

Marco and Tobias was at my home with my parents telling them that I had been in an accident and that the doctors' didn't believe that I would survive that night. Then he showed me a vision were I cycling home from Cassie and got hit by a car.

And then I morphed into the tiger and tore Marco into pieces and ate Cassie.

"CRAYAK, DON'T SHOW ME THIS, STOP IT AND LET ME GO!" I screamed right into the air and then it was like my eyes had exploded, my tears were everywhere. In the same moment the visions was gone, I was back with Crayak and the Drode and I didn't dare to cry anymore.

Then I discovered a dark ring of mist around me, it crept up over me, it felt like a caress at first but then the higher on my body it came it got harder.

"Crayak what is that thing, what is it doing?" He didn't answer. "Crayak p…" In some way I felt that if I pleaded for him to let me go something would allow him to do whatever he wanted with me.

"What was you about to say Jake?"

"Nothing…"

"Are you sure?" At that time the dark ring reached my throat, it fell up from my shoulders, I could barely breathe, the fog made it's way in to my mouth and nose when I tried.

"NO! MUM, DAD, ANYONE, HELP ME… CASSIE, MARCO, TOBIAS…" I could still hear Crayak laugh in the background.

"They can't hear you, you know they can't hear you!" I refused to listen to him anymore.

"RACHEL!! AX!! EREK!! TOM!!"

Fifteen minutes later I was completely exhausted. I had called for everyone in the world that I thought would come to my help if I was in danger; Cassie's parents' Rachel's parents', Marco's father, my older cousins', Elfangor… Now I couldn't scream anymore, the dark ring had reached my face and placed itself over my mouth. I didn't think that Crayak would kill me anymore, he wanted me to make a mistake. So I closed my eyes, at least he wouldn't be able to read them wrong on purpose then…


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter**** 6.**

Suddenly another light appeared from some other direction. And it was very different from the light Crayak used to see me. I recognized the light, it made me feel a little better, not very much right then but it was at least something. And it really was a relief to hear his voice this time.

"CRAYAK, WHAT IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE ARE YOU DOING, WE HAVEN'T AGREED IN ANYTHING LIKE THIS!" Crayak just laughed.

"WHAT, CAN'T YOU TAKE A JOKE ELLIMIST?"

"OK BUT IT'S ENOUGH NOW, LET HIM GO!"

"I WAS JUST ABOUT TO DO THAT ACTUALLY!"

Then I saw that the Ellimist's light was eating on the dark ropes that I was tied up with but I wasn't sent back home.

I ran away to the parts of the Ellimist I could see, then I would at least be free from Crayak, that was what I imagined anyway. But still I felt a pile of horror when I hear him speak again.

"HE'S YOURS AGAIN! DO WHAT YOU LIKE! SEE YOU IN YOUR DREAMS JAKE!" After that his voice disappeared into the air, all that was left in the world was a green light, the Ellimist had moved me to a safer place. I felt completely safe now, and a little sleepy.

"HOW DO YOU FEEL JAKE?"

"Can't you read my mind? You know how I feel!" I asked a little absently.

"YES JAKE, I DO, BUT SOMETIMES IT CAN FEEL A LITTLE BETTER IF SOMEONE ASKS, DON'T YOU AGREE?"

"Yes, you're right!" I felt very calm now, almost as if I was drugged. "What are you doing with me?"  
"IT'S NOTHING DANGEROUS, I'M JUST GOING TO HELP YOU RESCUE YOUR PARENTS FROM THE SHARING! CRAYAK SAYS IT IS ALL RIGHT BECAUSE HE CHEATED WHEN HE KIDNAPPED YOU! AND YOU DON'T NEED TO DO ANYTHING, JUST KEEP CALM AND TRY TO SLEEP…"

…

… He disappeared… everything felt very strange…

… After a while I could hear other voices…worried voices…all I could see right then was some strange white light… it disappeared… shadows… human shadows…

I blinked with my eyes for a while, and then the shadows disappeared and I could see who they were. My parents was there, they stared at me with worried looks, the other Animorphs was there too, everyone, Ax in his human morph, Erek, even Tom was there.

Now I was enough awake to notice almost everything, I was lying in my fathers arms, on the ground, on The Sharing's picnic area. What had the Ellimist done with me?

"Excuse me… but… what happened?"

"You fainted!" Tom answered, he actually seemed a little worried too. "You just fainted, are you feeling better now?" Then I knew what the Ellimist meant with that he was about to _help me _save my parents. The Ellimist wasn't allowed to save them, he could just help me a little.

"I don't know, I'm just a little tired that's all!" I replied.

"We're going home!" Dad decided immediately.

"What? Why?" Tom exclaimed just as suddenly as dad had made his decision.

"Because that your brother have fainted and need to get some rest, maybe even sleep!" I leaned backwards on his arm and closed my eyes to show everyone that he was right and some minutes later, after he had been yelling at Tom a while I felt that he lifted me up. Then I opened my eyes a little, just to make sure that my mum followed him.

It was nothing to worry about, she was running in front of us to open the car door.

Just before they closed the door in front of me I could see Marco holding up his thumb to me. I gave him a weak smile.

Tom decided to stay all the night. Rachel, Ax and Tobias stayed for about half an hour so that no one would be suspicious. Cassie and Erek stayed for almost three hours for the same reason.

And I slept for the rest of the day.


End file.
